This invention relates to a fishing reel for winding a fishing line, such as a bait casting reel or a spinning reel, and in particular to a fishing reel having an operation body such as a knob on a lever for operating a moving member.
Generally, in a fishing reel, a spool is rotated to wind a fishing line thereon by rotating a handle arm attached rotatably to the reel main body. To facilitate the rotation operation of the handle arm, an operation knob is placed at the rotation end of the handle arm and is grasped with the user's fingers. Hitherto, the whole main body of the knob attached to the handle arm has been molded in one piece with a material such as an ABS resin, rubber, or a compregnated wood (for example, refer to Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open No. Sho 61-118251).
In recent years, reduction in the overall weight has been demanded for the reel from the viewpoints of winding operability and release operability of a fishing line and portability. The conventional knob is entirely made of a resin material, a rubber material, etc., and thus becomes heavy. The specific gravities of the ABS resin, compregnated wood, and rubber are 1.05, 1.3, and 1.25 respectively. Further, the knob is manufactured comparatively large so that it can be grasped easily; consequently, the operation handle as a whole becomes fairly heavy.
The handle arm is made long and a heavy knob is attached to the distal end of the long handle arm. Thus, the rotational inertia of the whole handle increases and the rotation operability of the handle is lowered, particularly in the fishing line winding operation. Also, it is difficult to wind a fishing line while finely adjusting the winding speed.
The weight balance of the whole reel unit is also adversely affected and the total operability of the reel unit is degraded when the operation handles described above are used.
Further, a knob made of a rubber material is comfortable in the hand, but the material is too soft. When the knob is grasped with the user's fingers for winding a fishing line, it becomes easily deformed, worsening the fishing line winding operability.
A natural cork material, also called a cork material, is known as a fishing reel grip. It has a fairly small specific gravity of 0.15-0.18 and also has a reasonable strength in a dry state; it is one material appropriate for reducing the weight of a knob. If a cork material is worked singly to a knob shape and a shaft body is attached thereto, the weight is reduced to about one sixth to one eighth as compared with a resin or rubber material of the same shape, resulting in remarkable weight reduction.
However, if a cork material is used singly, a problem arises in the strength when the knob made of the cork material is fixed to a shaft body or is rotated, and there is the fear of breakage in long-term use. To solve this problem, for example, the cork material may be fixed to an aluminum pipe with an adhesive for reinforcement. Resultantly, it becomes somewhat heavy as compared with the single use of the cork material, but the weight is reduced to about one third to one fifth as compared with a resin or rubber material of the same shape.
If the cork material is manufactured so as to directly touch the hand in use, a good feeling is provided and weight reduction can be attained.
However, if the cork material absorbs a moisture content and becomes soft during the use, or if grease or oil adheres to the cork material and the cork material becomes soft, the strength drastically diminishes and the cork material cannot stand long-term use as a knob. Thus, the cork material is hard to adopt for the knob main body.
Such problems also apply to operation bodies such as a clutch lever and a stop lever for fishing reels. Accordingly, it desired to solve these problems.